cover image One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

One River, Many Wells: Wisdom Springing from Global Faiths

Matthew Fox. Jeremy P. Tarcher, $29.95 (469pp) ISBN 978-1-58542-047-6

Fox, who broke from his Roman Catholic roots with his earlier books The Coming of the Cosmic Christ and Creation Spirituality, presents quotations from various faith traditions to introduce what he believes are the universals of every faith. The title comes from Fox's metaphor that every religious tradition is a different well that descends to a single subterranean river of spirituality. This is scarcely an original idea, but Fox has been one of its greatest popularizers, in the company of such illuminati as John Dominic Crossan and the scholars of the Jesus Seminar. Using the approach he has named ""Deep Ecumenism,"" Fox writes about four universal areas of spirituality (relating to creation, relating to the divine, relating to ourselves and relating to the future), integrating quotations from the sacred writings and stories of Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, folk religions and other traditions. Many of the selected quotations are set off by special margins, while others occur in boldface type in Fox's own running text. Concluding with ""Eighteen Myths for Remythologizing our Species""--ranging from the unsurprising insight that all traditions can learn from each other to the intriguing idea that sexuality is sacred--Fox continues to be an articulate presenter of the trends that he helped put in motion. If his ideas no longer seem innovative, that only credit his success as an apostle of self-made spirituality. (Oct.)